Crowdsourcing the Timeline

[robkelk]

I still haven't decided on the political course for the US. During the 90s it goes whole hog right-wing isolationist conspiracy-theory whackjob -- do I send it further down the rabbit hole, or does the pendulum swing back during the 2000s? I'll entertain arguments either way.

I'd suggest having the pendulum swing back. An isolationist country is a country that doesn't know enough about what's going on to trade with other countries on a level playing field, and the global economy has been tending toward integration and freer-trade ever since WWII. American companies would likely tell the US government "either you open up again or we move," just in order to keep their market share, and the public might be wonering what happened to all those lovely cheap Chinese Indonesian goods they're used to buying.

That gives the government the problem of convincing the citizens of the benefits of internationalism... No, that's going too far - make that "open trade and discourse" instead of "internationalism."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

@Acyl--those events were taken from real history--I didn't make much of that up . . .. Just the supers stuff. Truth is stranger than fiction.
I'm perfectly happy with TL9 with some TL10 would probably be good (after all, Blasters are TL11^ in 4e). I hope Ultra-Tech helped. I'm thinking that it starts as TL8 with some TL9, and by 2015, it's a mature TL9 with some TL10.
I'm actually with Rob on the pendulum swinging back. One of my plots was that the US President (for the past decade or more) has actually been Dead Ringer. Eliminating him allowed the US to regain some semblance of sanity. It also makes it easier for the US to come back to the UN.
As for the Middle East, it's possible that the Iran/Iraq genocide could have created tens of thousands of metahumans who decide to go on a Jihad (or something else) against the rest of the world.
I’m operating under the “Homeline did it” for my IST Seoul 2k game, but that reveal will be a while down the road (and less relevant overall--even if Gold & Appel knows it).  Making China the badguy isn't hard, at all.  Now that you have a few more ideas thought out, I’m going to offer this as a basic suggestion, for the launch of 2000. I don’t want to deviate too far from what you want to have the official time line be, so, I want to send this by you (less retconning later). I also will do my best to keep the identity of the culprits secret.
2000-
At 0012, January 1 local time a pair of 10 kt thermonuclear devices detonate in Hong Kong. IST Hong Kong is vaporized along with a large contingent of peacekeeping troops and thousands of celebrating civilians. Chinese forces attack the outskirts of the city and make some headway. The entirety of UN Forces go on full alert. All leave is cancelled and all team members are recalled (by teleportation) if necessary. Dozens of supers are teleported into Hong Kong to push back the Chinese.
A Chinese and UN peace delegation in Pyongyang is assassinated by a massive, non-nuclear, explosion. The explosion levels the Presidential Palace and causes significant damage to nearby buildings. Accusations fly back and forth and Chinese and North Korean forces surge across the DMZ into South Korea.

[Mark Skarr]

Bob, I posted my timeline file here. I can email it to you (or send you a text version) if you don't want to get it from my skydrive account.

[Bob Schroeck]

Thanks. I'll have to download it later, as I'm currently sitting in the audience of a "Plays-in-the-park" production of Spamalot waiting for the show to start.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Ah, well, by the time you read this, you'll have enjoyed it. So . . . I hope you enjoyed it.

[Bob Schroeck]

Am I supposed to be seeing just an image of the first page? Or is that all I get unless I register or something? I suspect it would be easier to just send me a text file.

Oh, and yes, thank you, we did enjoy the show greatly.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Hmm, odd. Even if I'm not logged into Skydrive, I can get to it all.

Emailed two copies--one DOC and one TXT.